


Magnolia

by MidoriKurenaiYume



Series: Neverending [2]
Category: Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Betaed, F/M, Missing Scene, Non-Explicit, Wedding Night, hints of romance, sombre
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 20:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9459878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidoriKurenaiYume/pseuds/MidoriKurenaiYume
Summary: The first night in which Lady Arturia did more than just talking with her husband.Side-piece to Signal.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a missing scene from Signal; namely, it's the night in which Gilgamesh goes to his wife's chambers for the first time, with no explicit description, just the thoughts. Again, the characters are rather OOC.
> 
> Title: it's a Kalafina song that in my opinion is rather similar to Signal ;) (it's in the album 'After Eden')  
> Thank you to Yogarasu for being such a kind person and for beta-reading this piece!

…

…

...

She was sitting in front of her personal mirror, having just finished undoing one of the two intricate braids that were usually pinned up in her elegant hairstyles, when there was a knock on the bedroom door.

Her sweet handmaiden, Irisviel, didn’t have such a firm way of knocking, as she had a soft, almost hesitant touch; it had to be someone else. Arturia knew that very few people had access to this part of the house, therefore she could deduce the intruder’s identity rather easily.

However, merely making conjectures was inane, therefore she simply called, “Come in.”

She turned in her seat to face the unexpected visitor, and wasn’t entirely surprised when she met the sharp crimson eyes belonging to her husband.

They held each other’s gaze for a brief while after he closed the door behind himself, and then she turned away, facing the mirror again, bringing her hands up to start freeing the rest of her hair.

“Good evening,” she greeted him evenly, her fingers not stopping even as she could feel his eyes following her every movement. She usually tied her hair in a loose braid for sleep, and she intended to do the same tonight as well.

And she was going to do so even if her husband had taken a few steps closer and was now standing almost behind her, studying her and still firmly holding her gaze.

Arturia didn’t allow her eyes to wander away, even though she had been tempted to glance at a deep burgundy robe she had earlier placed next to herself.

Every evening for the past two weeks, she had been going to her husband’s chambers, to talk with him and begin to get to know him. Tonight she had been meaning to do the same – but Gilgamesh had anticipated her, coming to her own bedroom before the usual time.

Had he come only a few minutes before, she wouldn’t have been presentable, and she hardly was now. She had indeed always been in her nightgown when wandering off at night, but she had also worn the burgundy robe to cover herself, both because of the cold and because her nightgown – too transparent and flimsy for her tastes – only covered the bare minimum of her body to prevent her from being naked. And right now, she was wearing that same garment, which had been part of the wedding trousseau and she had therefore been unable to decline.

Shaking those thoughts away, she finished undoing her hair and let it cascade over her shoulders, feeling slightly more confident with this – rather insubstantial – additional cover. Gilgamesh’s eyes still hadn’t left hers in her reflection through the mirror.

He took another step closer, closing the distance between them, and his hands went to rest on her shoulders. However, to her surprise, before doing so, he lightly brushed her long blonde locks to the side, so to have his skin directly touch her nightgown.

He had not yet replied to her greeting words, and she doubted he would. From what she had come to learn about him, he was not one to bother with things he deemed unnecessary, and a greeting was certainly a pointless formality when it came to the woman he had married.

She simply stared at him, feeling the additional weight of his hands on her shoulders and focusing everything she had in not showing how tense she was.

She could make a very accurate guess about the reason for his presence in her chambers. Even though she had long since known everything that a marriage entailed and had already started to take a few steps in the right direction in order to make life with him easier – by attempting to understand what kind of man her husband was – she could not deny that she was uncomfortable.

He had suffered a great loss less than a month before; she had suffered losses in the past as well; they had been forced into their marriage, and now they had to go through with it.

She wasn’t about to let her expression betray her thoughts though. She would do her duty; she would fulfil her obligations, without allowing her instinctual bashfulness to interfere.

However, she was surprised when Gilgamesh simply kept holding her gaze, his hands not moving from their position, remaining resting on her shoulders as if they felt at ease there.

Slowly, firmly, but also very calmly, he finally said, “If you wish for me to leave, I will.”

She could not help freezing in place, her stare wavering for a flicker of a second at his declaration.

She knew exactly what was implied in his sentence. He was giving her a choice.

Arturia tried not to hold her breath as she did her best to keep holding his gaze. He probably didn’t know, but she did not intend to turn him away. What she had learned about him in the past fortnight had not given her an unfavourable opinion of him, and while by no means could she claim she knew her husband, she couldn’t consider him a stranger anymore either.

Moreover, had she actually wished for him to leave, she had to remember that there were going to be other nights, and consummating the marriage wasn’t something in which either of them had a choice, therefore procrastinating without a good reason wasn’t sensible at all.

Besides… as soon as that part was over, he was going to leave her chambers anyway. Arturia knew all too well how most marriages in their society worked: husband and wife spent the least possible time together, even in the bedchamber.

But, as if he had been able to guess the direction of her thoughts, he spoke again, his hands on her shoulders tightening their hold slightly.

“If I stay,” he slowly clarified, “it means that I will not be leaving for the rest of the night.”

Even as her heart started beating faster, she kept holding his gaze through the mirror, refusing to blink or waver under its suddenly increased weight.

She understood what he meant by that, and it made a very strange sensation surge in her chest.

He was giving her a choice, but he was also making the specific consequences of her possible choice completely clear. The fact that he meant to stay there for as long as possible meant that he did not mind spending time with her, even though their marriage had been forced on them and was something neither of them had wanted.

She had hoped to be able to get along with him. The fact that he was now in her chambers meant that he wanted the same, apparently.

The couple of weeks of their cautious acquaintance had been able to give them the start of a tentative friendship, a friendship based on mutual understanding and – if her husband’s words right now where of any indication – on respect.

Gradually, something more earnest settled on her features. She knew she had been tense, but she had not realized how truly guarded she had been ever since he had entered the room, even though she had still managed to display a reasonably calm exterior.

She shouldn’t have attempted to compare her marriage with the ones of other people. It was her _own_ ; her actions and her husband’s would determine the outcome, the countless examples provided by others were not relevant for how _they_ would behave.

He was still waiting for her to make up her mind even if, unbeknownst to him, she had already made her decision the moment she had ascertained his intentions. She couldn’t deny, however, that his last words had made her decision somewhat much more welcome to her, making sure that she was now accepting not because of sense of duty, but because of the reciprocal understanding she had reached with him.

She wasn’t going to lower her eyes, but she had to face an inner struggle to once again keep holding his gaze as she said, her voice as steady as possible, “You forgot to lock the door.”

Arturia only had the time to see a faint trace of amusement appear in her husband’s eyes before his hands left her shoulders and he took a step away, so that he was now standing by her side instead of behind her. She finally tore her eyes away from the mirror to stare at him directly.

He leaned forward, leaving her confused for a second, but then one of his arms slipped around her shoulders and the other beneath her legs, lifting her up without apparent effort.

Her green eyes, now on level with his crimson ones, showed emotions for the first time, expressing her complete surprise at his actions. She was in his arms, wearing only her light nightgown that was proving to be a barrier of rather irrelevant significance, and her skin was heating up where she could feel him touch her.

But Gilgamesh only stared at her intensely, and for the first time ever since she had known him, she saw a smirk tilting his lips upwards.

“I don’t believe anyone will be foolish enough to try to come here tonight, Arturia.”

Her husband had never used her first name without any formality before, and the shiver that ran down her spine at hearing him call her in such a way took her aback. By the sudden, slight tightening of his hold, she strongly suspected that he had noticed as well.

When he reached the bed, he put her down, in a sitting position, coming closer to her, and as his hands reached for the fabric of her clothes, she couldn’t help closing her eyes. She told herself she shouldn’t have bothered tying up the nightgown’s many straps so carefully, as she felt her husband’s fingers now beginning to undo them all, one by one.

Her eyes snapped open, however, when she felt his lips. Contrary to what she might have expected they were not on hers; he had made them meet her cheek lightly, before travelling downwards and now tracing the skin of her neck with unanticipated gentleness yet unmistakeable underlying desire as well.

Arturia tried to focus over the pleasant sensations that his lips were making her feel, and found an unexpected distraction in the blond head of hair that was responsible for those emotions. She couldn’t resist the immediate impulse she had – she reached forward, and let her fingers sink in the golden field in front of her, feeling and caressing it as his mouth continued to kiss her down her throat.

He released her when her hands unconsciously pulled at his strands, his arms leaving her nightgown to go around her waist, and he looked at her strangely, an eyebrow slightly raised in a silent question about her actions. She stared at him in equal confusion.

“I am not going to just lie here without doing anything when you kiss me in such a manner,” she said, her voice slightly huskier than normal.

Only after pronouncing those words did she realize how bold they sounded, and felt a faint blush appearing on her cheeks. She had not meant to speak her mind in such a forward manner.

Her husband didn’t seem to mind in the least though; in fact, a spark of unexpectedly _fond_ amusement danced in his eyes. It warmed her heart to see it, especially when she compared it to his extremely sombre countenance back when they had first been introduced.

However, he clearly did not intend to allow her thoughts to wander away from the present. The next instant, one arm went around her to cradle her upper body gently yet possessively while the other applied just enough pressure on her shoulders to make her lie down, his form hovering over hers as his fingers finished untying the last nightgown straps.

“I wouldn’t dream of complaining,” he breathed next to her ear, before distancing himself from her slightly to meet her eyes, showing her an unexpected intensity in them.

And taking her by complete and utter surprise, he bent down again suddenly, just enough for his lips to claim hers in their very first kiss.

One that was going to be the first of many, of course.

...

…

…


End file.
